The Abrahamic Covenant

 When he gave back the captives to the king of Sodom, the king offered to reward Abraham, but Abraham refused because he did not want to become indebted to an ungodly king.

When Abraham decided to designate Eliezer, his most trusted servant, as his heir since he still didn’t have a son, the Lord reassured Abraham that he would give him his own son. The Lord told Abraham to count the stars if he could, and then said, “Your descendants will be like the stars, too many to count.”

Abraham reaffirmed his trust in God’s promises by making an animal sacrifice, and the Lord himself passed between the animals in the visible form of a smoking firepot and flaming torch, assuring Abraham that God could be trusted. He promised that Abraham’s descendants would possess the land from Egypt in the south to the Euphrates River in the north. The Lord would allow the Amorites (one of the nations living in Canaan) to occupy the land for four hundred years before removing them because of their sin.

Abraham and Melchizedek

 When war broke out between kings in the region, one of the kings and his allies plundered the city of Sodom. They captured Lot and withdrew to the north. When Abraham found out his nephew had been captured, he organised 318 of his best warriors and pursued Lot’s captors. He caught up with them north of Damascus and rescued Lot and all the other captives from Sodom.

After Abraham returned, the priest-king Melchizedek blessed him, recognising God as creator and the one who had given Abraham victory. (Melchizedek means “king of righteousness.”) Abraham expressed his appreciation to Melchizedek by giving him a tenth of the valuable goods he had captured.

Real freedom day1

 EXODUS 20

 

The people were free! After all those years — centuries — of slavery and oppression, they were finally free and headed to claim their Promised Land.

But there were still a few kinks that needed working out.

For one thing, they had no idea how to live as a nation. They had been an extended family, living under someone else’s rules and laws. They’d never really had rules and laws of their own before.

So God decided to teach them how to live.

There is something we should consider about God’s communication with people. How He says what He says is often an important factor in being able to accurately discern His message. In fact, it could be said that how He delivers the message is part of the message itself.

Imagine, all those people standing around this gigantic smoking mountain. There’s thunder and lightning flashing around the top. They have been warned not to touch the mountain, lest they die — and you remember what happened the last time a warning like that was issued!

Most of us probably know how this is going to turn out, after all, the movie re-airs on television every year! But the Hebrews haven’t seen

the movie yet, they are living it. They have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen next. All they know is that this guy shows up saying that a shrub caught on fire and told him to go to Pharaoh to get them free. Then, when Pharaoh didn’t want to cooperate (and who could blame him, really?) there was an onslaught of plagues unleashed on those Egyptians. And now here they are on their own in the middle of nowhere, with more money than they know what to do with.

So now this crazy Moses fella climbs up this smoking and shaking mountain. Who knows how long he’s going to be up there?

At the top of the mountain, God tells Moses something amazing. If the people will commit to following His instructions, they will be His treasure, a people set apart for His purposes, set above all the other nations. That’s pretty impressive, to go from slaves to the envy of all, just by keeping God’s instructions. You’d think it would be a no-brainer, right? The deal of a lifetime.

Meanwhile, back down the mountain, the people grow impatient and talk Aaron (Moses’ brother) into melting all the gold they had received into an idol for them to worship. When he finally climbs down, Moses finds them throwing a giant block party with drinking, dancing and all kinds of sordid stuff that would get you thrown out of your local Sunday School.

Fortunately, God had told Moses something no one could have expected. Before He gave even one of the Ten Commandments, God told Moses, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Ex 20.2). In other words, the law was given after their freedom — not in order to gain their freedom. (Don’t forget that one.) Obedience was not a means of becoming God’s Chosen People, obedience was a response to God’s deliverance.

There were consequences for not obeying, of course. Sin is serious and brings about terrible results. Lots of the Israelites died as a result of their terrible choice. Still, God could have chosen to wipe them all off the face of the earth. He could have abandoned them then and there or sent them straight back into slavery in Egypt. But He didn’t.

See, God had a plan, and not even the disobedience of His people could stop it.

 

Prayer 

 

Lord God, where can I find life but in You? Teach me the error of seeking to reduce You to manageable proportions and to make the invisible visible. Protect me from the subtle forms of idolatry in which I worship and serve something in Your created order above You. I know that only one thing can occupy the centre of my being and that if it is not You, it is an idol that is not worthy of my allegiance. I thank You that when I do succumb to the sins of disobedience, Your grace always reaches further than my rebellion. Still, I desire to delight in You above all else, and I am grateful for the gift of Your Word that guides me in the way I should go. Your revelation teaches me how to live and gives me the perspective I so greatly need in a world of uncertainty.

In Jesus’s name, Amen 

Abraham and Lot separate

 Abraham returned to Canaan and decided to live in Bethel, where he had previously built an altar to the Lord. Abraham and Lot were grazing their sheep together, and both had become extremely wealthy. Their herdsmen quarrelled over grazing rights, so the two men agreed to separate. Lot chose to live near Sodom, though the people in that area were exceedingly wicked.

After the departure of Lot, the Lord again assured Abraham that he would give him the land as far as the eye could see and predicted his descendants would be as numerous as the sand. Abraham built another altar to the Lord at Hebron.

The birth of a nation day4

 Most married couples either videotape their wedding ceremony or hire a photographer to chronicle the happy day’s events. Some do both!

Why?

Well, most couples find themselves caught up in the whirl of emotions and thoughts and find that they have a difficult time remembering the details of the day. Things move so fast; the whole day seems like a blur! Having a video or a photo album allows them to go back and reconstruct the events. It helps them remember. They may not go back and review things every day, but on special occasions it’s nice to be able to recall what it was like to be so young and idealistic and in love.

Love fades sometimes — well, the emotional part of it. Marriage is not for the fainthearted. We wear rings as symbols and have pictures to remind us of the commitment we made in front of God and everyone else. We celebrate our anniversaries annually because we must remember our vows to love and honour and cherish “until death do us part.”

It’s been said that no woman ever forgets that she’s married. But a husband or a wife can sometimes fail to act like he or she is married, so having built-in reminders is a good thing. And it’s a similar story for people and their relationships with God. It was certainly the case for the Israelites in the Old Testament. It was impossible for them to forget that God had delivered them out of Egyptian bondage and into a land flowing with milk and honey. But they often failed to act like it.

God desperately wanted His people to remember where they’d come from and how He’d delivered them, so He built in some reminders. Every year, they observed the Passover. Periodically, they offered sacrifices. There were special meals, days of fasting and days of feasting. Much of their lives was oriented around activities designed to prompt their memories. God knew that if they failed to live with the memory of deliverance fresh in their minds, they would repeat the destructive patterns of an enslaved people again and again, leading them back into more extreme forms of bondage.

Today, take some time to remember what God has done for you. Specifically, remember the deliverance He has offered you, at no expense to you whatsoever. Remember how He brought you out of your own personal form of slavery — slavery to sin and selfishness and destructive patterns of behaviour. Remember how He delivered you from loneliness and alienation, how He brought you into a land of purpose and meaning and relationships, taking you off the path of certain destruction and transplanting you onto a path headed for an eternal home. Remember how He took your sorrow and gave you joy in return, took your anxiety and gave you peace, took your fear and gave you confidence.

Christianity expects certain things of its adherents. Christians are expected to give and serve, love and forgive others and offer thanks to God on a regular basis. It could be that those things would flow more easily from our hearts if we would regularly take time to simply remember.

 

Prayer

 

Father, You have never left me alone. Even when I feel that You are distant and removed, I know that I am still in Christ, seated with Him at Your right hand. You have allowed seasons of fullness and of dryness, times of abundance and of profound need. I know that You are more interested in my character than in my comfort, and that You use everything to forge godly character in my life. You have called me to fidelity to the process rather than to live only for a product. Give me the grace of holy remembrance, so that I will frequently review all that You have done for me during my journey with You. May I call to mind Your faithful acts, Your provision, Your patience and Your great acts of deliverance. Apart from You, I have nothing and am nothing.

In Jesus’s name, Amen 

Abraham lies about Sarah

 A severe famine then forced Abraham to move to Egypt. Because Sarah was extremely attractive, Abraham was afraid the Egyptians would kill him and abduct his wife. So Abraham lied; he told the Egyptians that Sarah was his sister.

The ruler of Egypt (Pharaoh—a title, not a name) was captivated by Sarah’s beauty and attempted to take her as one of his wives. When the Lord inflicted terrible diseases on Pharaoh’s household, he became suspicious and accused Abraham of lying. When Abraham admitted that Sarah was his wife, Pharaoh ordered him to leave Egypt.

The calling of Abraham

 Terah was a descendant of Shem, one of Noah’s three sons. Terah also had three sons, one of whom was Abraham. While Terah and his family lived in Ur, the Lord appeared to Abraham. He told him, “Leave your country, your father’s family, and go to a new land that I will show you. I will bless you, make you into a great nation, and bring a blessing to all people through you.” (The promise to bless all people was ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham.)

After God had spoken to Abraham, Terah moved his family to Haran. Abraham lived in Haran for several years, though the city was not in the land God had promised him. After the death of his father, Abraham moved to Canaan with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew Lot.

At this time, in the Promised Land, Abraham had to live like a nomad, moving from place to place because the Canaanites occupied the parts of the land that were fertile. God appeared to Abraham a second time and again promised his descendants would possess the land. Abraham worshiped the Lord by building a stone altar.

The birth of a nation day3

 We live in a space between what has happened and what we’ve been promised will happen. But we wouldn’t know that if not for the Bible. Were it not for these great stories that have been preserved for us for thousands of years, we might be tempted to think that we’re all on our own — at the mercy of the tides, left to scramble and adjust to each random bend in the road.

But the Bible tells us very clearly. The twists and bends are not random. Nothing happens to us pointlessly. God uses each and every circumstance to shape us and form within us the kind of character we were originally designed to bear.

Abraham and Sarah were promised a son, but they waited and waited for years before the promise was finally fulfilled. They may have been tempted to give up, but God was interested in more than just getting things done. God is careful about how He does things.

Joseph was sold into slavery, and his brothers meant to do him harm. God, on the other hand, had a much larger plan in mind, and used Joseph in Egypt to save his family.

Moses spent 40 years as a fugitive from the law, tending sheep in the middle of nowhere. He must have thought that maybe God was through with him. But God was using that time to prepare him for one of the greatest missions in human history.

The theme that begins to emerge from these stories is that God values the process as much as the outcome. In some ways, the journey is as important as the destination. God is not merely interested in taking you somewhere, He intends to make you someone in the process. The twists and turns, the tempests and trials, these are the ingredients He uses to transform you into the kind of person you were intended to be all along.

In our bottom-line oriented society, it’s vitally important to remember. How we get to the end is every bit as important as that we get there, because how we get there — the choices we make and the way we live between now and then — will determine who we are when we arrive.

 

Prayer 

 

God, I recognise that I did not determine the circumstances of my birth, my abilities, my opportunities, my pathway. It is You who have called and chosen me for Your inscrutable purposes. My times are in Your hands, and during this season of my temporal sojourn as a pilgrim, a wayfarer and a stranger, I know that You are working all things together for my greatest good. You see what I cannot see — the outcome — and You have called me to be faithful to the process and look to You for where it leads. I acknowledge my own powerlessness and my foolish attempts to do things in my own way, timing and reasons. I thank You that I can learn from the intensely realistic characters of the Bible, because human nature does not change. As I read their stories, I realise that they illustrate the stories of Your people today.

In Jesus’s name, Amen 

After the ark

 God blessed Noah and told him to repopulate the earth. Prior to the sin of Adam and Eve, the Lord had given humans dominion over animals but had not allowed them to eat meat. Now God gave humans permission to eat meat but said animals would fear people, perhaps because people would hunt them for food.

As a reminder of the high value of life, God did not permit the eating of blood—not because blood was unhealthy, but because blood was a symbol of life. God warned he would demand the life of anybody who killed (by implication, “murdered”) someone.

To assure Noah and all humanity he would never again destroy life with a flood, God designated the rainbow as a special sign.

Unfortunately the flood did not eliminate the problem of sin. The tragedy of sin overtook Noah and his sons. Noah got drunk on wine he had made from the vineyard he himself had planted. In his stupor, Noah removed all his clothes. When his son Ham entered Noah’s tent, instead of respecting his father by covering his nakedness, he did nothing and told his brothers. His brothers, Shem and Japheth, exercised extreme caution so they would not humiliate Noah by looking at his nakedness. They entered his tent backwards and carefully covered their father with a large blanket.

When Noah realised what Ham had done, he said Ham’s flagrant act of disrespect would have consequences on future generations. Because his moral conduct exposed a serious character defect, Noah predicted Ham’s son Canaan and his descendants would be oppressed by others. Noah also prophesied that God would bless the descendants of Japheth and Shem because they had shown respect for their father.

 

(Genesis 10 contains what is called “The Table of Nations.” Though the list comes before the account of the tower of Babel in the book of Genesis, it shows the dispersion of the nations in the ancient Near East after God’s judgment at Babel. It contains the names of individuals, tribes, nations, and even cities. All the people listed are in some way connected to Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah.)

 

Recap of Genesis 1-11

 God created the earth and the whole universe in six days. As the climatic act, he made Adam and Eve. When he had finished his work, God rested on the seventh day.

He placed Adam and Eve in Eden and provided everything they needed to live and enjoy life. He gave them instructions on how to live, and warned them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan deceived Eve; she and Adam disobeyed God.

God told Satan, Eve, and Adam what their punishments would be, and he assured Eve that one of her descendants would triumph over Satan. He covered their nakedness but banished them from the garden.

Eve gave birth to Cain and later to Abel. Abel did his best to respect God, but Cain was godless. Cain killed Abel because he was jealous of Abel’s relationship with God.

As God had warned, Adam died. Because his sin affected the whole human race, as the population increased, the world became corrupt and violent. This broke the Lord’s heart, but it made him so angry that he decided to destroy the world.

Noah was a good man. To protect Noah from the coming flood, God told him to build an ark for his family and for animals.

After the flood, God commanded Noah to repopulate the earth. He promised he would never destroy the world again with a flood, and gave the rainbow as his promise.

Instead of spreading out as God had ordered, people gathered to build a city and a tower. Because everyone spoke the same language, God put an end to their rebellion by confusing their tongues and scattering them across the earth.

The Tower of Babel

 The consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin surfaced again in rebellion against God in Shinar (the ancient region of Babylonia or southern Mesopotamia; this area is today’s country of Iraq). As the population began to increase after the flood, God commanded people to repopulate all of the earth. Instead of obeying, they settled on a plain in Shinar. Because stone was scarce in that area, they developed the technology to make bricks and constructed a city. Motivated by pride and the desire to establish some kind of powerful humanistic empire, the rebels erected a skyscraper type of temple-tower in the city centre.

The rebels’ blatant defiance of the Lord did not go unnoticed. There was no limit to what they might do if God did not stop them. At this time in civilization’s development, everyone spoke the same language. The Lord, knowing exactly how to stop them, confused them with different languages and forced them to scatter all over the world. The tower was given the name Babel. (This is a play on words. In Hebrew, Babel means “confusion,” but in Babylonian literature it refers to “the gate of god.”)

After the flood

 After the flood, God kept his promise to Noah and all the animals on the ark; he closed the huge underground caverns of water that had broken open, and he stopped the rain. He sent a powerful wind to accelerate the evaporation of water. (There are two views on the extent of the flood. Some believe it was universal, covering all the earth. Others believe it was local and destroyed life only in populated areas.)

After 150 days, the ark landed somewhere on the mountains of Ararat (southeast of the Black Sea bordering on today’s Turkey, Armenia, and Iran). Noah and his family stayed in the ark for another two and a half months until the waters had receded enough for them to see the tops of other mountains.

To make certain it was safe to leave the ark, Noah released two birds. First he released a raven that flew until it found a place to land and did not return. Second, he released a dove that returned because it could not find a place to land. Noah waited seven more days, then released the dove again. When the dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak, Noah knew there was dry land. But to be absolutely certain, Noah waited another seven days and released the dove a third time. This time the dove did not come back.

Noah was now 601. It had been ten and a half months since the beginning of the flood, and Noah felt it was safe to remove the top covering of the ark. He could see dry land, but he waited another two months until the earth around him was completely dry.

Just as God had ordered Noah to board the ark, God ordered Noah to leave the ark and release all the animals to repopulate the earth. After he had set the animals free, Noah built an altar and sacrificed some of the approved animals and birds to thank the Lord for delivering him and his family from the flood. The Lord accepted Noah’s sacrifices and was delighted with them. Though Adam’s sin had permanently corrupted humankind, the Lord swore he would never totally destroy the world again. He promised there would always be a cycle of seasons to sustain life.

 

 

The flood

  A rampant explosion of wickedness throughout the earth both broke the heart of the Lord and made him angry. He was extremely disappointed in the people he had made but made the painful decision to destroy everything he had created. 

In contrast to his contemporaries, Noah was a man of integrity and had a special relationship with God. His sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The rest of humanity was totally corrupt. There was complete anarchy. Because of Noah and God’s close relationship, God did not want to destroy Noah with a flood, and ordered him to build an ark out of gopher wood (probably cypress) and cover it entirely with pitch. He instructed Noah to build it so that it would not capsize during the flood. God said to build it with three decks but no windows, only an opening for ventilation eighteen inches from the top deck. Though there had never been a flood, Noah believed God and built the ark exactly as instructed. 

After Noah finished building the ark, the Lord told him to take seven pairs of every clean animal, two pairs of every unclean animal, and seven pairs of every species of birds into the ark. (The distinction between clean and unclean animals is based on differences as defined in the Law of Moses.) The Lord then warned Noah the rain would begin in seven days and would continue for forty days and nights. 

At age six hundred, Noah brought his wife, his sons and their wives, and all the animals on board. As soon as he finished loading, the rain began. In addition to the rain, gigantic tidal waves from the oceans swept across the earth, covering it for 150 days. Everything was destroyed, only Noah and those on the ark survived. 

Birth of a nation day2

 By now you’ve hopefully caught on to a few things about the Bible. First of all, anyone who says that the Bible is boring and irrelevant hasn’t read it! Already there’s been murder and deception, sibling rivalry, sex and heartache and danger. Themes ripped out of today’s headlines come alive in the stories we read about these ancient people.

And we’re just coming to the end of the first book!

Something else you’ve probably picked up on is that the people talked about in the Bible are real people. They’re not two-dimensional, cardboard cutouts who always get it right. They’re flesh and blood people who struggle with insecurity and anxiety and have mixed motives sometimes — just like the rest of us.

This is important, because it helps us see that their story is, in many ways, our story as well. Adam and Eve aren’t just people who lived a long, long time ago in a land far, far away. They’re us, trying to accept and live within the freedom-inducing boundaries set by our Creator.

Abraham and Sarah aren’t just the mother and father of the three major world religions. They’re us, called to live a life of adventurous, risk-taking faith in pursuit of the land our God has promised.

Joseph isn’t just a spoiled brat who hits rock bottom and makes a resounding comeback, saving his family and the destiny of the descendants of Abraham. He’s us, believing that God is with us in the darkest times, giving us discernment in the midst of confusion, empowering us to forgive those who have wronged us.

The Bible story is our story. We don’t just read it as an academic exercise, we read it to understand better the true nature of ourselves and the world in which we live.

Third and most important, though, you should know by now that the main character in the Bible is God. As tempting as it may be to read these stories and ask, “What does this tell me about me?” we must first stop to think about what these stories reveal to us about the character and nature of God. Otherwise, the stories become about the people of God instead of being about the God of the people.

When you look at it that way, the Bible reveals to us a God who is in charge, is incredibly creative, solves problems in roundabout ways, takes His own sweet time and manages to deliver His people in spite of overwhelming odds. In fact, it sometimes appears as if God prefers the hard way to the easy way. He doesn’t seem to be as interested in efficiency as we are, preferring to lead His people through a character-forming hardship more than along a comfortable, cushy path.

He even seems to prefer working with messed up people rather than someone who’s got it all together.

It’s rarely a straight line. It’s an adventure. But you’ve already figured that out by now, haven’t you?

 

Prayer 

 

Lord, give me the illumination to see You more as You are rather than what I fancy You to be. I realise that all the stories in the pages of Your revealed Word point to You, Your character, Your ways, Your faithfulness, Your goodness, Your graciousness, Your patience, Your loyal love, Your creative purposes, and to the excellence of Your glorious attributes. Everything is about You and not us, yet You have chosen to make us the recipients of Your boundless grace. May I know You, and may I know myself in light of the knowledge of You. Your progressive revelation of Your person, powers and perfections illuminates my path and inspires me to walk in fidelity and obedience to You, and I ask for the empowerment by Your Holy Spirit to be fully obedient to all that You call me to be and do.

In Jesus’s name, Amen 

The Nephilim

 During the lifetime of Noah there was a population explosion. ‘The sons of God” lusted after beautiful women and married them. (There are three major views on the identity of ‘the sons of God.’ 1) They were fallen angels who took human bodies to cohabit with women, 2) they were godly descendants in the line of Seth, and ‘the daughters of men’ were in the ungodly line of Cain, or 3) they were powerful tyrants who forced themselves on attractive women.) Their children were called Nephilim. (Some believe the Nephilim were mighty warriors, descendants of the union between ‘the sons of God’ and ‘the daughters of men.’ Nephilim are mentioned later, in Numbers 13.33, but they could not be descendants of the Nephilim in this passage, since all humanity except for Noah and his extended family were destroyed in the flood. Nephilim is probably a general term referring to ‘physical giants’ or ‘powerful warriors.’) The Nephilim became famous superheroes and dominated the world. Until now, the Spirit of the Lord had spared humanity from judgment because of sin, but the Lord warned he would only withhold judgment for another 120 years. 

Birth of a nation day1

 EXODUS 1–14

 

Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had two sons named Jacob and Esau. Jacob (whose name got changed to Israel) had 12 sons, one of whom was named Joseph (who had an amazing Technicolor dream-coat!). And Joseph, as you may or may not know, found his way down to Egypt (okay, he had a little “help” from his brothers).

(I seem to be making a lot of parenthetical statements).

It’s a good thing Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. If they hadn’t, the entire story would have ended early and badly. A famine struck the land where Jacob lived with his family, and because Joseph was in Egypt, he was able to stave off starvation and save his entire family.

But they were still just a family. They weren’t really a nation yet.

The whole family relocated south and lived in relative ease and comfort. They were related to Joseph, after all, and Joseph was the second-most-powerful man in Egypt.

And they started having babies. Turns out the sons of Abraham were a lot more, er, fertile than their patriarch. They were so fertile, in fact, that the new pharaoh — who didn’t know Joseph or his family like the old pharaoh — started to notice how many of them there were. He started to fear that they might want to take over the place, so he had them enslaved (while he still could). But the people kept growing. Pharaoh, feeling even more threatened, started killing all the baby boys.

The descendants of Abraham were supposed to be a great nation, but they didn’t even have their own land yet. They were slaves, powerless to stop a ruthless madman from performing post-birth abortions on their children. They must have wondered about those great promises YHWH had made to Father Abraham. Maybe they were just old wives’ tales, stories you tell to children to get them to behave.

But God wasn’t finished yet. He was still working, first through a tiny baby boy who shouldn’t even have survived, then through the pharaoh’s daughter. (You’ll see as we go, God loves working through outsiders.) That baby boy grew up to be Moses, the greatest leader in the Old Testament.

Now, it was hardly a straight line from being hidden from Pharaoh in a floating basket made of reeds to leading 2.5 million people (or so) out of bondage and into the land of milk and honey, the land that God had promised to Abraham. Moses tried taking matters into his own hands — which, we already know, never works out well in the Bible — and had to flee from the long arm of the law.

He spent 40 years tending sheep in the middle of nowhere, until he had a conversation with a bush that appeared to be on fire but refused to burn up (how long did it take him to figure that one out?). Out of the flames, God broke the news that He had chosen fugitive Moses to run as manager on His mission to liberate His people. Moses reluctantly agreed to talk to Pharaoh, and then watched as God miraculously rained plague after plague after plague down on the Egyptians until the oppressors begged the Hebrews to leave. (The Egyptians even threw money at them on their way out.)

And so it happened, God’s people become a nation, leaving behind their chains of oppression on their way out the door to the Promised Land.

Here’s something we’re already learning in this Big Story. God has one central plot-line that relentlessly moves the story forward, but He is also content to chase a lot of rabbit trails along the way (He even speaks in parenthetical statements sometimes). He does things at His own pace. Sometimes it’s painfully slow and other times it’s faster than you can blink.

But it’s His story, so He gets to decide when and how things happen.

 

Prayer 

 

God of our fathers, I give thanks that You have revealed Your great and surprising story of redemption to us in Your extraordinary Word. Through the Scriptures, I see that there is always a purpose in what You do, and that nothing catches You by surprise. You are fully sovereign over human history, and I am grateful that You have embedded Your people in a larger Story. It is this Story that gives me perspective and hope amidst the uncertainties and obstacles of this earthly sojourn. Your creative plans behind the scenes turn the apparently hopeless situations we face into manifestly hopeful outcomes. Your deliverance and Your timing are surprising, but I want to learn to trust in Your wisdom and not in my own. May I hope in Your providential care and not in my own limited plans and efforts.

In Jesus’s name, Amen